Well my friends, these are all good replies... I'll just add two questions and my 2 cents worth.
1. First, can you please identify the type of sickness you are seeing (marine ich?)
Be advised if you have ich this can be a serious problem and it can kill all your fish as it cycles through the gravel and reappears.

2. What type of medication did you use?

3. 20 lbs of live rock is not a lot for a 55 gal with moderate to rubust bioload trigger, etc. (especially if it has been damaged by medication, see point 2) so you may want to wait until you can afford that skimmer before you start removing your bio filter material.

4. While 30 ppm of nitrate may sound alarming to some, IMO it is not a great concern for what you are keeping, and when you add the skimmer it should help a lot by removing nutrients/dissolved organics and indirectly nitrates. Then you should be able to look at removing the biofilter but make sure your skimmer is functioning for a month or so to be safe. Trust me, nitrates are far less dangerous than an ammonia spike. Maybe reduce the gravel bed down the road if it's more than 1 inch deep.

5. If water changes and skimmer do not impact nitrate reduction, you may look into sump with DSB/mud filter/plant filter options; much promise there for you.

6. Stop feeding goldfish to the trigger; not a good food source compared to a variety of shellfish and silversides, etc.
Don't be discouraged; your questions/research will lead to success._________________Keepin' marines happy for 25 years

hi,
thanks all for the replies. I will definately look into making a skimmer, and get that project started ASAP. right now I have been researching and found that having a refugium is very benefitial. I have a 20 long laying around that I will use for it, and also just ordered 2 brittle starts, tons of crabs and a cleaner shrimp to help me out. I would LOVE to get more live rock, but pet store or internet, its just expensive! I still have the penguin 330 with both wheels, my 170 is the one that I use without the wheel. the sickness the tang had was either ick or some sort of velvet disease. she and the black clown are fine now, everyone is great! except for the nitirate, but all other levels are perfect, so I guessed since everyone is fine, the levels can't be hurting them that bad. I have about 1" of crushed coral, and when I change the water everyweek I always suck as much stuff out of it as I can. if anyone has tips or comments on a refugium it would be great to hear. I already have the basic set up and will be ordering the overflow for the tank. once again thanks for all of the comments, they really help me out!_________________LOVE the saltwater

For the refugium, use aragonite sand instead of crushed corals. You might want to read up on deep sand beds and how they contribute to the cycle (crushed coral according to what I have read is not that good). Another thing you might want to read about is a plenum. (plenums are debatable, with some people saying they do much good and others disagreeing, so read and decide what you want).

A one liter water bottle works well, but not very effeciently. To make one...cut the bottom off a regular one liter plastic bottle after enjoying the contents. you can fashion a collection cup out of almost any small container and make a hole in the bottom just large enough to screw it onto the neck of the bottle. You will need a wooden airstone and an airpump to drive it. Feed the airstone under the opening in the bottom. You will need a way to attach it to the side of the aquarium, I used suction cups and rubber bands for my first one. Adjust the height of the skimmer so that the water line is a few inches below the neck of the bottle. When you turn it on will will take it a while to foam, be patient, it will skim once it is broken in a little. If you get too much light colored water in the collection cup raise the skimmer up just a little.

I still have a variation of this on my qt tank, it sill pulls out junk. The airstone needs to be replaced every few weeks.

You will need a real skimmer, this one will only work on small tanks as it cannot process much water volume at a time._________________Jack
29 gallon planted various fish
58 gallon salt, 30g fuge
75 gallon planted, 5.45 wpg

have one more question. in making my refugium, I know that the bio balls will just act just like the bio wheels, so they would be bad. but I have been looking at "nitrate reactors" which clame that they will decrease the nitrate. all that it seems to me is just a container of bio balls or different kind of balls. anyone know anything about these? thanks_________________LOVE the saltwater